Day One

I must be crazy. Or adventurous. Here it is November first and I decided to challenge myself to start a blog and write for NaNoWriMo beginning today. Well, ok, I started writing for NaNoWriMo at midnight eastern time, so my word count is ok for now and I have written on livejournal for over a year, so maybe it's not that crazy.

For those of you who do not know what NaNoWriMo is, there is a group of people out there, who like me, are going to work toword the goal of writing at least 50000 words this month. The best part is, those 50000 words will need to be put together enough to tell a story and grow up to be a novel one day. I have done this two years in the past. Last year I won with a few days to spare. The first time I set myself to do this was 2006 and I didn't make the word count. Or, I might have, it is still unknown. I didn't lose my manuscript on the computer and the dog didn't eat it or anything horrific that writers have nightmares over. I just didn't have a good plan of action. I was working full time, writing by hand at work and trying to train our then puppy to not bark indoors or eat the sofa all while typing every night at my computer desk without a chair. Because I gave up around Thanksgiving (we were then driving home to Virginia from Ohio for the holidays) and never typed up most of my hand written pages I still don't know the word count for that year. The holidays are a little tough if you don't plan to reach a certain word count each day. Not to mention, being comfortable while writing is always important. The first year I also didn't sign up on the NaNoWriMo website so I did not get all of the encouraging emails from the NaNoWirMo team (which, eventually, if you sign up, you look forward to those emails).
I figured if I won last year, with days to spare at the end of the month, while working two part times jobs and not having a single day off, going to a wedding out of state, and having friends in town from Canada and was still able to reach 50000 words, I am not too worried about doing this again this year and finishing.

This year, just like last year, I have convinced my husband to write with me. I am pretty competitive so if his word count is higher than mine, it's a good motivator.

On another note, my niece turns two today! My husband, and I made a short trip to Roanoke, VA for my niece's small but fun birthday party yesterday. And if anyone ever says that a two year old doesn't know what her birthday is or what presents are, I beg to differ. When my mom walked into the living room with hands full of gift bags, Hailie (my niece) gasped and was jumping up and down in the middle of the circle we had created around her. The gift that was the biggest hit? She went for the biggest gift first (of course) and gasped as she pulled a box out of the pink paper bag and saw there was a doll inside. She pulled the box out the bag, gasped again and was saying "Baby, Baby!" My brother got the doll out of her cardboard box as quickly as he could and then handed her the doll. She patted the doll and smiled and cooed at the doll and had forgotten that she was surrounded by other gifts. My mom, mom's boyfriend, my best friend, brother, husband and I laughed with her in her excitement. For the duration of the present opening, Hailie would give the doll to someone in the circle to take care of while she opened the next gift.

Also yesterday, I had my first professional massage. I figured I would pamper myself before the writing began. I can honesty say I have not been that pain free in my back in years. I am planning on another massage as soon as the novel is finished.

You are probably thinking, why aren't you writing if you have 50000 words to write. And you are right.